a path to balance

The Gunas

Guna is the Sanskrit word meaning attribute or quality.

The ancient texts of ayurveda give us the twenty gunas or ten pairs of opposites listed below. Theoretically, everything in the universe can be described in terms of these qualities. There are gunas associated with each element, dosha, symptom, food, yoga pose, mood, etc. They are extremely important because the foundation of ayurvedic treatment is to identify the out-of-balance guna and apply its opposite.

(For a little Ayurvedic Institute flavor, heres a YouTube link to Dr. Lad singing the 20 gunas in Sanskrit! Chanting the ancient texts is the easiest way to learn them. Dr. Lad frequently chants the sutras when he teaches various concepts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhCImQDCj8U)

Taking the gunas a step further, heres how they apply to the doshas and how they show up in our bodies and minds: